I started working on fruits in 1962. In this connection I travelled widely in India and all continents of the world. During this period I not only saw new fruits but also met a wide variety of people and had equaqlly wide variety of social and cultural experiences. I am going to share these with others in this blog.

February 19, 2018

Organic farming is a big talk these days. It has become
rather a fashion among educated and upper-class people to speak in its favour,
without having proper knowledge about it. People from the educated class have
started thinking that it is the modern techniques of farming, i.e. taking help
of chemicals to increase farm production, which is putting us at risk of
dreaded diseases. But it is not correct. The fact is that modern farming is the
need of day and agriculture not possible without the use of modern technology.

Before
discussing the reasons in favour, let me tell what exactly is meant by organic
farming by its advocates.It is
production of farm crops without using ANY KIND OF SYNTHETIC CHEMICAL.Let me also tell here that it is not only
chemical pesticides that are used in farming. Many other kinds of chemicals are
used for achieving different objectives.

The use
of chemicals begins right with the treatment of seed with fungicides and
pesticides so that the seed reaches farmers in in good health and without
carrying any pathogen. Then, help of chemical herbicides is taken by adding
these to soil for controlling weeds.This saves cost of labour involved in weeding.Weed control with the use of herbicides has
assumed the magnitude of a separate science now and researchers are engaged in
continuous research for finding ways to control weeds with chemicals.

After
the seed germinates and the plants start growing, pests of various sorts, who
also have to stay alive by feeding themselves on these plants, appear on the
scene.It is a natural process.These also have to be controlled and the most
effective and economic way of doing this is with the use of chemicals. When
chemicals were not available for this job, other techniques were used e.g. my
mother and grandmother used to sprinkle wood ash from chulha on the
bhindi, brinjal and pea plants in their kitchen garden to saving them from the attack of
insect pests. There were other few other treatments like that. In our B.Sc. Ag.
class in 1958-59, we were taught preparation and use of tobacco decoction as
one of the treatments for insect control.I do not know it is whether it is still taught.But I have never seen tobacco decoction being
used for insect control during my professional career.

Then comes the period between germination and
final crop harvesting.Sixteen elements,
viz. hydrogen, carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, potassium, calcium, magnesium, phosphorus,
sulphur, chlorine, boron, iron, manganese, zinc, copper and molybdenum are
required for plant growth. Out of these, carbon comes from air through
photosynthesis and hydrogen and oxygen received by the plant from the water.Rest of these elements or nutrients, come
from the soil.Soil does not contain
infinite supply of these nutrients which are removed from soil with every
harvest. So, soil has to be replenished for these as in case of deficiency of
any of these occurs in soil, growth of plant (and finally the yield) will be
affected.This replenishment is done by
adding these nutients to soil in the form of manures, fertilizers and nutrient
sprays. This is only way to maintain soil productivity.

The
organic manures like farm yard manure, compost or vermicompost does add many of
these nutrients to the soil but that is not enough.So additional supply of nutrients is required
which is done by adding chemical fertilizers and foliar sprays. This is a must.
For example, the annual requirement of nitrogen for a fully-grown apple tree
has been worked out to be 700 grams. This cannot be supplied by adding farm
yard manure alone.As one kilo of farm
yard manure contains only 500 mg of nitrogen. Therefore, 1400 kg of farm yard
manure will have to be applied to a bearing apple tree for meeting its annual
requirement of nitrogen. It is simply not possible and therefore use of
chemical fertilizers is a necessity.Same is the case with other elements.

When any
plant is grown in very large number in a small area, as is the case in cereal
and vegetable crops, diseases do appear. Diseases in plants are mostly caused
by fungi, bacteria and viruses.There is
no effective way of controlling a plant disease except chemicals which have
been developed specially for this purpose by farm scientists over decades of
research. These chemicals are released for farm use after thorough
testing.These are not evaluated only
for their effectiveness to control diseases but for their toxicity and effects
on human health.

Then another
class of useful chemicals, which are of hormonal nature and regulate many plant
growth processes, has been developed by plant scientists for use in
agriculture. Spray of 2-chloroethane phosphonic acid, which is sold as Ethrel
in market, is being widely used by Himachal apple growers of lowers areas for
advancing the maturity and enhancing the red colour in fruits.This treatment was developed during seventies
by the researchers of Horticultural University, Solan and thousands of apple
growers have been benefitted with its use.The use of gibberellic acid by grape growers of Maharashtra for berry
size enhancement and bunch loosening is a regular annual practice there.

Many
fruits do not have a very long shelf life and therefore cannot be shipped for
long distances. Chemicals, e.g. succinic acid dimethyl hydrazide have now been
developed which enhance the shelf life. Fruits like mango, chiku, banana,
persimmon etc. have to be picked from trees unripe and then induced to ripen
later at the points of sale.This is now
being done effectively with the help of chemicals.

What
solution do the advocates of organic farming have to offer for protecting the
farmers from above problems?

Other effects of organic farming:

This is a proven fact that increase in yield cannot achieved
by reverting to old system farming where the plants were left at the mercy of
nature.To progress, India has to move
with times which means adoption of modern scientific techniques in every field
including farming.

There is
no denying the fact that Indian farmer is at loss today.They are in this profession today because
there is no other choice.Hardly any
farmer in India wants his son to be a farmer.Realizing this the present government recently set a target of doubling
the farmers’ income by 2022.There are
only two ways to achieve this target, either double the production and increase
the price.The first option is not
possible by adopting “no chemical” organic farming.

Opponents of modern farming:

It can
be noted from press reports that the persons opposing modern farming are all
laymen having no background of agriculture.Most of them are religious preacher type of persons denigrating modern
farming without any tenable logic. None of the farm scientists have ever said that
we should revert back to century old farm practices. So, should the country
listen to these self-styled organic farming experts without any professional
training in agriculture or farm scientists.

What needs to be done:

It is not untrue that there is injudicious use of farm
chemicals, especially pesticides.And at
times this is a serious health concern. But this is not because of the
chemicals but because of the ignorance of the farmers about the proper use of these
chemicals.They are not rightly told
about the use of chemicals. In most cases the farmers are guided by vendors who
also do not have complete knowledge. Then to be safer side, farmers also raise
the dose for more safety and this is the root cause of problem. However, it can
be easily sorted by training the farmers.

Further research
needed:

Though there is no doubt in the fact that it is not possible
to achieve increased yield without the help of farm chemicals. But still there
are still some people who do not agree with this. To convince them,
comprehensive trials comparing the both systems continuously for 5-6 years
should be carried out.The effect of
both the systems on farmers’ economy should be evaluated and only then decision
to revert back to old system should be taken.

In the end
I would like to say that chemicals are not adulterants.These are the outcome of scientific
advancement.So do not oppose their use
in farming.

About Me

Born 16-5-1939, Ph.D. in Horticulture from the University of Udaipur in 1972, have been working on wild growing and lesser known fruits since 1972; most widely travelled fruit scientist of India, currently compiling Fruitipedia, an online encyclopedia of the edible fruits of the world.